Locked In
by xfirefly9x
Summary: Scully/Mulder. Scully and Mulder are locked in their office. What will they get up to? Slightly cracky and OOC.
1. Going To Be Late!

**Locked In**

"Mulder! We're going to be late!" Scully called, anxiously brushing her hand through her fiery red hair. She retrieved her black coat from the hanger by the door and pulled it on over her white blouse as Mulder came up behind her.

"We'll make it," he assured her, helping her with the coat and retrieving his own. He smiled down at her as he readjusted his collar, and moved silently over to his desk to get his suitcase and several files for the case that they were currently working on.

"Sure, Mulder," Scully replied disbelievingly. She chewed her bottom lip restlessly and watched as he collected some papers from the various stacks of files and records on his desk. _Why did he leave getting the files to the last minute? _Scully sighed. _We are almost definitely going to be late, now!_

Mulder rolled his eyes at his partners' doubtfulness and retrieved the final file from the table near the slide projector. "Okay, that's it," he pronounced. "Let's go!"

Scully breathed a sigh of relief and moved toward the door. _Finally!_

She reached for the doorknob and turned it eagerly. Nothing. She tried it again. It still wouldn't open.

Behind her, Mulder glanced over at her, impatiently. _What is it now?_ He wondered. _Is she having second thoughts about this?_

"Scully? Is everything okay?" Mulder enquired. "You still want to go, don't you?"

Scully shot him a defiant look and nodded. "Of course I still want to go! We may have a little problem though."

"What?" Mulder moved in to stand next to her. It was awfully crowded in the confined space near the door, and he accidentally bumped into her. Had they not known each other as well as they did, she could've quite easily mistaken it for something more than his occasional tendency of being a klutz. "Sorry."

_Woah, real smooth there, Mulder!_ he taunted himself. _Great way to make things even more uncomfortable!_

"Don't worry about it," Scully glanced up, her face flushed slightly. _Is it getting crowded in here or what?_ she thought, nervously.She averted her gaze to the coat hanger and studied it as if she would be required to take an extensive exam on it later.

Mulder noticed her discomfort so abruptly changed the topic. "So, what seems to be the problem then, Scully?"

"What?" she asked, taken aback by his question. "What are you talking about?"

"What's keeping us from leaving?" Mulder reiterated.

"Oh. The door won't open," Scully explained. She moved awkwardly back into the office, brushing quite intimately against Mulder's chest as she passed. She felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her and let out a small, unwilling gasp._ What the hell was that?_

Mulder acted as if he hadn't heard her sharp intake of breath and tried the doorknob for himself. It was definitely not opening any time soon. "I think it's locked from the outside or something," he told Scully. "You wouldn't happen to have a key on you, would you?"

Scully rummaged through her purse first and then both of her coat pockets, finally coming up with nothing. "Sorry. I must've left them in the car. What about you?"

"I lent mine to Skinner this afternoon. He wanted to get another copy of the key. Apparently the FBI's copy was destroyed or went missing," Mulder explained. "He wasn't very clear on the details."

He gave up trying to get the door open and joined Scully by their desks. "Well, I guess we won't make it tonight," he said, half-jokingly.

Scully smiled grimly and nodded. "I guess not."


	2. Wardrobe Malfunction

"Best get comfortable then, huh?" Placing his suitcase back on his desk, Mulder began removing his coat. He must've gotten it caught in his gun holster somehow though, because when he tried to slip it off his shoulders, it stuck there. _Ah, great! This is just what I needed!_ he mused sarcastically.

"Need some help?" Scully suddenly asked, diverting his attention from his self-pitying thoughts.

Mulder glanced up at her and nodded frantically. "Please."

His face reddened when he saw her expression. An amused half smile was plastered on her face and an enigmatic twinkle lit up her eyes. He wondered what she was thinking of him right now.

Scully took a few steps towards him and hesitantly reached out to help him remove his coat. Her fingers gently found the edges of the material at his waist and she slowly fed the fabric through her hands to find where it had caught.

By the time she'd found the snag, her arms were around Mulder's waist. It wasn't until she had found it that she realised just how physically close they were getting to be and her face flushed a deep red that spread all the way down past her neckline.

_Okay, this is getting weird now._ Scully thought to herself. _Why am I getting myself so worked up about this? I'm just helping him remove his jacket, _she reasoned. _And that really didn't sound right! I'm just helping him remove his jacket in a completely innocent, friendly way,_ she corrected.

"Scully?" Mulder questioned her. His head was cocked awkwardly to the side, so he hadn't noticed her embarrassment. "Have you got it?"

"Almost," she replied, forcing as much stability into her voice as possible. She couldn't let him see her, or hear her for that matter, when she was so flustered. They were partners. Nothing could ever happen between them. Nothing like what she was thinking.

Pushing her thoughts away, Scully returned to the task at hand. She let her fingers wander over the snag at Mulder's waist and carefully unfastened it's hold.

"Getting a little excited there, are we?" Mulder teased, as his belt fell loose around him. His pants sagged slightly and he grabbed them quickly to prevent them from falling.

Scully rolled her eyes and pulled the jacket free. "Sure, Mulder. Whatever you say," she intoned. "If you just let go for a second with one hand, I think we can get this off you, now."

Mulder nodded gratefully and let go of his pants with one hand. They drooped down lower on his hip, but remained more or less intact. _Well, this is definitely not what I thought I'd be doing tonight, _he mused thoughtfully. _Far from it, actually._

Scully assisted him in removing his arm from the jacket and he pulled it out eagerly. "Much better!" he noted, flexing his muscles.

Scully smiled and gestured at his other arm. "So, do you want help rescuing your other arm now or can you do it yourself?" she asked, teasingly.

Mulder shrugged good-naturedly and shot her a mischievous grin. "I don't know!" he said, tightening his grip on the waistline of his pants. "Oh, actually, it'd be great to have some help. I think my pants are starting to fall off…"

Scully stifled a laugh as Mulder's face contorted in concentration, at his pathetic attempt to hold himself together. "Here, let me help," she told him, placing her hands over his on his waist and pinning his pants in place.

She finally managed to pull the jacket over his head and moved over to the door to hang it up on the coat hanger. Mulder meanwhile, fiddled with his belt and found he was able to clasp it back together, despite the broken fastener. Pulling himself together, he let out a sigh of relief and moved over to his desk.


	3. Pencil Capers

"So, Scully. What do you propose we do?" Mulder asked his partner, looking up at her expectantly. He grinned at the contemptuous glare she shot in his direction and sitting down on his desk chair, swung his feet up onto the table in front of him.

"I don't know Mulder," Scully replied. "What do _you_ suggest we do?" She followed suit, taking a seat at her own desk.

"Well," Mulder began. "We could…uh…play cards?"

Scully nodded slowly. "Yes, we could," she replied. A sudden thought occurred to her and she quickly added, "So, do you have any cards here?"

"Oh, right," Mulder shrugged, uncertainly. "That would probably help." He opened his top desk drawer and shuffled around in it in search of some cards. Not finding any, he moved onto the next drawer and the next until there were no more drawers or cabinets to look through.

Glancing up at Scully, he gave her an apologetic half-smile.

"What?" Scully asked, confused. "Did you find any cards?"

"I got nothing," Mulder told her. "It looks like we'll have to stick with talking or…or something."

"Like what?"

Mulder watched as Scully stood and began pacing the small confines of the office. There wasn't much space available, so he found it rather comical to see her going from one wall to the other in the matter of seconds.

"Are you sure you don't have any cards lying around, Mulder?" she asked him, pausing for a moment. "There's got to be something we can do."

"I'm sure there is. I mean there're plenty of cases we can go through. Of course, there's not much point without being able to go and investigate and everything, but that's something. Or we could reorganise the filing system, clean up a bit, that sort of thing," he suggested, hoping like mad that she'd reject all of his ideas.

"Mulder. All I wanted today was to have a normal day at work and go out to dinner with you. I am _not_ going to spend the rest of the night working," Scully informed him. She sighed restlessly and resumed her pacing of the office.

After several minutes of tense silence, Mulder finally had an epiphany. A mischievous spark shone in his eyes and he waited until Scully disappeared into the bathroom only minutes later, before once again opening the top drawer at his desk.

He slipped his hand in and retrieved a handful of pencils that were bound together by an elastic band. Awkwardly pulling off the band, he spread the pencils on the desk in front of him in a neat pile. He had just straightened them out into a neat line when Scully returned.

"What the hell are you doing, Mulder?" Scully asked, immediately noticing the pencil formation on the edge of his desk. "That's not what it looks like, is it?"

"If by that you mean if it looks like a line of pencils, then yes, it is what it looks like," Mulder grinned deviously at her and carefully adjusted the last two pencils on the left that were slightly out of line with the others.

"And what do you intend on doing with these pencils, partner?" Scully raised an eyebrow and ran her tongue along her lip, perplexed.

"Watch and learn," was the only answer she received. Shaking her head scornfully, she observed her partner critically as he picked up the first pencil and leaning back in his chair, gazed calculatedly up at the ceiling.

Squinting upwards, he positioned the pencil so it was easier to hold. A second later, he let it fly. The pencil darted from his hand through the air above them and lodged itself in the ceiling with a sickening, yet strangely satisfying 'thud'.

"Your turn," Mulder stated, leaning over to hand Scully a pencil.

Scully eyed him sceptically for a moment before reluctantly taking the proffered pencil from his outstretched hand and glancing up at the ceiling. "We could get into trouble for this," she told him pointedly. "There're rules against purposefully damaging FBI property, you know."

"Ah, forget the rules, Scully! Live a little!"

The corners of her mouth hitched up into a smile and she nodded out 'okay'. "Here goes nothing, I guess," she said, lining up the target. Just as she'd released her grip on the pencil, the office door swung open.


	4. Caught!

"I thought I'd find you here," Skinner jumped right in, not noticing the stunned expressions on the two agents' faces or apparently the pencils that had just etched their way into the ceiling either.

Acknowledging Mulder briefly first, he turned purposefully towards Scully. "There was a phone call from your mother that just came through. She was wondering where you were."

"Okay, thank you, sir," Scully replied, attempting to keep her voice as natural as possible. Despite her best efforts though, it came out quite raggedly. "I'll call her back right away."

Skinner nodded slowly, catching on. "Is there something wrong, agent?" he asked curiously.

Mulder quickly stepped in, seeing Scully's cornered expression. "No, sir," he said. It finally occurred to him that they were no longer locked in. "We just had a little trouble with getting the door unlocked earlier," he explained with a small smile. "Everything is fine now though. Right, Scully?"

Scully glanced up at the mention of her name. "Oh, yes. It's fine now."

"If you're sure?" Skinner eyed them suspiciously.

"Yes, it's fine," Scully repeated, just as her pencil unstuck itself from the ceiling and plummeted downwards. Skinner watched amusedly as it collided noisily with Scully's desk, inches away from where her hand rested.

Scully jumped back startled and looked up at Skinner with an expression on her face that she hoped passed as innocent. _Maybe he'd think that Mulder had been the one to put the pencil in the ceiling. Maybe._

"Are you in need of more stationary?" Skinner asked, straight-faced. "A pencil holder, for example?"

Scully groaned as Mulder collapsed in a fit of laughter at his desk. "No, sir. I'm sure we have enough supplies and such already," she informed him. "But thank you."

Skinner nodded and allowed a small smile to break out onto his face. "If you change your mind…" he faded out meaningfully.

"No, I'm sure we'll be fine," Scully repeated.

"Well, in that case," Skinner smiled at them, "I'll see you tomorrow." Nodding a quick 'goodnight' to them, he exited the office, closing the door behind him.

Scully immediately turned to her partner, who was now clutching his chest from laughing so hard. "I am going to kill you!" she glared at him. Pulling herself to her feet, she headed to the door and put her coat on. "Tomorrow," she added. "And I'll take a raincheck on dinner if that's alright. I'm really tired tonight and I don't think I'd make very good company."

Mulder nodded. "Sure, tomorrow it is then," he said with a grin. He watched as Scully adjusted her coat slightly, and then moved over to the door. "G'night, Scully."

Scully shook her head wearily in amusement and returned his 'goodnight'. Smiling to herself, she tried the door again, slowly turning the knob in her hand. It wouldn't budge. Again. She tried the other way. Nothing.

With a reluctant sigh, Scully turned back to face Mulder. He stared at her questioningly for a moment before realising what must've happened. "Locked in?" he asked.

Scully rolled her eyes in response, obviously exasperated by the goings on of the night. "Yup, we're locked in," she confirmed. "Again."


	5. The Nature Channel

**A/N: Hey, I finally got around to writing another chapter! (Thanks to budgiefreak for that latest review - that's what motivated me to get this chapter written!) Hope you like! Oh, and just to warn you, there's more evilness planned for later chapters!**

"So…" Mulder broke the silence that had blanketed the room. After discovering that they'd been locked in once again, Scully had returned to her desk and they had both drifted off into their own personal thoughts.

It was looking quite certain that they would have to stay for the night in their office. In fact, it looked likely that until Skinner returned in the morning for a meeting that Mulder had made with him earlier that week, they would have to stay there.

The phone lines were all down, as were the Internet connections due to updates that the building was going through. Taking that in mind, they were unable to call out for help or even send an email to Skinner or anyone else for that matter.

In addition, they had nothing with them that they could pick the lock with. Not that Mulder wanted to unlock the door and get out of there. He was fine with spending the night in the office with Scully – even if it meant missing dinner.

"So, what?" Scully replied wearily. She glanced up to meet her partner's eyes and offered him a grim smile.

"Want to watch something on TV?" Mulder asked, reaching for the remote even as he spoke. "I heard there was some movie on tonight. Might be good."

Without waiting for Scully to reply, he turned the TV on, flicking through the channels quickly to see what was on. He thanked whatever power it was that allowed the TV to work. He'd half expected it to be cut off like everything else was.

"How do you expect to see what's on when you change the channels that fast, Mulder?" Scully asked him critically. She moved over to join him by the TV, leaning on the table edge for support.

Mulder grinned. "If I told you that – "

"You'd have to kill me?" Scully interrupted, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

Mulder nodded at her, mock seriousness flooding his face. "Yes. Exactly. And we wouldn't want that, would we now?" He turned back to the TV and finally stopped at a channel that had a pair of gorillas dancing around each other.

"Must be the nature channel, Scully," Mulder informed his partner smartly. He continued watching for a minute or so. "Very…uh…natural…" he stuttered as he realised what the gorillas were doing.

Scully grinned knowingly and returned to her desk. "Yes, Mulder. It's very natural. Gorillas do it, too." She slid the top drawer of her desk open and pulled out a camera, as Mulder nodded dumbly in response, without taking his eyes off the screen.

Scully crept silently around to get a better view of him and then….SNAP! There was a blinding flash as the photograph was taken and Mulder jumped back in surprise, knocking over a stack of files and random newspaper articles. He pulled himself together and then turned to glare at his partner.

"Gotcha!" Scully grinned.


	6. Scarred For Life And Using Force

Fifteen minutes later, the program Scully had tuned into ended and they were both bored out of their minds.

Nothing to do, nothing to see, nowhere to go.

That just about covered their situation.

Not only that but Scully had innocently flipped a video in the player that she'd found lying on Mulder's desk and set it on for a moment. The instant the picture flickered onscreen she flicked it off, scarred for life.

Scarred for life. For eternity.

She made note that in future if she were to succumb to her boredom and look for something to watch, the videos on Mulder's desk were to be off-limits. They were far from work related. Far, far, far away.

She did not, in the rest of her lifetime, need to see them again. Any of them.

"Ack!" she muttered as the images flashed through her mind again.

Mulder smirked at her. "Something wrong, Scully?"

Scully pierced him with deadly eyes of blue. Her lips formed a scowl. "Oh, no. Not at all," she responded dryly. She shook her head to clear her mind.

Mulder watched her.

She rapped her fingers on her desk.

"You know what, Mulder?" she said. "I think it's time we used force."

"Force?" He looked worried.

Scully nodded slowly and exaggerated the expression on her face. "Force," she confirmed.

"Like how?"

Scully waggled her eyebrows and then nodded towards the door. "I know I said earlier that it's an offence to deface FBI property, but…"

"But what?"

"Do you have your gun?"

Staring at her in shock, Mulder slowly went to his desk and with care, opened the top drawer. He lifted out his gun.

Scully grinned. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

**A/N: There's only one more part after this!**


	7. Innocent Bystanders

**A/N: The final part! Enjoy!**

_(9am, the following day)_

"Agent Scully! Mulder!" Skinner stared at the two agents in pure disbelief. "What. Happened. Here?" He looked past where they stood in the doorway of their office at the mess that lay beyond.

The X files office was trashed and the door had a gaping hole where the doorknob should be. The doorknob lay on the ground at his feet. In pieces he could barely recognise.

Skinner frowned.

Walking inside, Mulder offered a half shrug and headed for his desk. He slumped into his chair and gazed pointedly into space.

Scully did the same.

"Agents?" Skinner prompted them. "Did someone break in?"

They continued to sit in silence.

"Scully?"

Nothing.

"Mulder?"

Zilch.

Skinner sighed and shook his head. He folded his arms over his chest. "I'll write you up a report," he told them. "If anything needs replacing, let me know. There'll be a new door complete with doorknob arriving in the next hour or so."

Scully glanced at him. "Thank you, sir," she said simply.

"Yeah, thanks, Skinner," Mulder agreed.

Frowning in confusion, Skinner turned and left.

Scully and Mulder locked eyes.

"Do you think he realised it was us?" Scully.

"Nah. And even if he did, he wouldn't report us. We're innocent bystanders in this if anyone asks."

"Right. We take no blame for the damaged property."

Mulder lets his gaze roam over their very untidy, very trashed office. "You know, I think our plan may have been a little faulty."

"Yeah?"

"We have to tidy all this up."

They shared a groan.

_fin._


End file.
